We propose a mechanism for funding human capabilities development in situations where other resource channels (markets, banks, government policy or NGOs) are lacking or deficient. We lay out the conceptual framework for a new type of multi-stakeholders co-operative in which members are 1) individuals or communities seeking funding for the expansion of their human capabilities along with 2) other funding members and 3) human capabilities enhancement services providers. Governance rules follow the operational logic of a co-op and the management structure of a cultural commons. An innovation is the creation of human capabilities equity shares sold by the co-op to funding members. These shares are only tradable under strict guidelines between (old and new) members. We argue that this design is superior from an ethical and efficiency standpoint to other existing solutions that attempt to market human ‘capital’.
This article presents several case studies for the method of true empathy. Empathy is a system through which man experiences renewal and revitalisation in his threefold nature. The first being is the body, called the womb, which is brought into a harmonious state through relaxation and a sense of unity. The second nature as a cosmic entity leads to inner joy, vitality and strength. Separations of consciousness - areas are integrated and experienced anew. The cells become alive and refreshed. Man experiences himself as a unit in the universe and feels full of love and full of light. It is the cosmic light that is experienced here. The third quality that identifies us with Christ is experienced in true forgiveness. Here the affirmation of the divine existence works in us. It renews the human being in the moment - in the absolute stillness. Forgiveness is truly healing.
Dedicated energy crops are essential for energy purposes with the production of heat and liquid biofuels, bioplastic, paper, and biochemicals. Several support measures were enacted in the EU to enable the expansion of dedicated energy crops. Ukraine has some experience with energy plantations. The study focuses on state-of-the-art and potential support measures for the plantations of energy crops in Ukraine, in particular Miscanthus x giganteus and Salix willow. The possible support measures include capital grants to start a new plantation, waiver of the land rent for the beginning several years of plantation operation and waiver of some taxes. A feasibility study was conducted for the hypothetical projects with the support measures and without them. The study concludes that combinations of support measures are needed, and capital grant to start the new plantations is the most critical support measure.
The goal of this article is to perceive and understand environment-related activities of international financial institutions (IFIs) as part of a societal learning process, and consequently to describe their 'environmental and social project quality criteria' as an expression of such ongoing societal learning processes. What can our readership, likely to be related to foresight, but also to higher education and lifelong learning, profit from such a comparison? Against the author's initial expectation, IFIs are starting to become efficient at redirecting global funds to climate and environmental projects - and have thus performed a successful 'act of societal learning'. The 'environmental and social project quality criteria' have played a crucial role in convincing economic and administrative actors (i.e., learners in our context) to behave in a climate-compatible manner. Thus, the lesson can be drawn from the domain of 'societal learning' to the domain of 'individual learning' that clear and transparent criteria sets are decisive for a rule-based societal transformation. This case study shows that a criteria-based selection process provides the best results for long-term societal interest; in this case climate protection.
The paper aims to describe the decarbonisation of large companies in Ukraine, entitling the clean energy transition of energy, transport, industry, and agricultural companies. The method of the paper is descriptive qualitative research. The paper focuses on several case studies from Ukraine, including the transition from oil and gas to biofuels and the development of new technologies for renewable energy. The paper focuses on the need to invest in mitigation technologies typical to those of developing counties, difficulties with attracting capital and access to finance, the high cost of imported natural resources coupled with disruptions of their supply due to price spikes, whereas the war made the industry very vulnerable. The use of renewable energy technologies and the global trend for decarbonisation is to become the basis for the post-war recovery in Ukraine.
The structure of an energy economy mirrors the views that a society has of itself: flexible, sustainable, self-responsible - or rather other values. In this light, the endeavour of transiting to a climate-compatible energy future means to take decisions now even if future technologies' performance is not yet known. Inspired by long-term trends as rendered visible through the 'global change database', especially that end-user-friendly energy carriers increase their market shares, it can be expected that electricity will witness further and solid growth rates within the final energy mix. However, interest-led groups from the gas industry contest an upcoming electricity-only energy future. Against this background, this article investigates dynamic details of the ongoing 'energy (r)evolution' and explores scenarios to which degree policies can think openly about the future while using sector coupling, synergies across energy carriers, and new financing models. It seems helpful to divide the energy transition into several phases.
The South African automotive industry is relevant globally as it supplies the local market and other European countries. The automotive industry in the country is experiencing disruption and is transitioning in different forms. This paper aims to explore the South African automotive market, focusing on the role of car manufacturers. Therefore, it investigates market characteristics, automotive sales and distribution, vehicle electrification and environmental sustainability, the implications of black empowerment for car manufacturers, and competitive dynamics in the South African automotive market. One issue car manufacturers face in the country is the need for market size. Export dependency is particularly challenging in times of a global pandemic.
In the recent decade, AI technology has proliferated into many industry sectors and formed a hegemony pushed by dominant actors. It has become an attractive phenomenon to study, as it significantly influences civilisation's current and future development. This study explores the hegemony in AI technology and provides a detailed map of contemporary development through a patent analysis approach. As a result, three significant findings are being highlighted. Firstly, the main hegemons of AI technology are uncovered; they are major tech companies in the USA and China. Secondly, four AI trajectories are identified, including pattern recognition, digital computing, administration, and computer system. Thirdly, six emergent themes of AI technology are listed, covering machine learning, natural language, deep learning, big data, neural network, and reality. Overall, this study extends the understanding of hegemony in terms of technology in which a dominant country exerts its power through patent strategy. It also maps how far AI technology has expanded in the current hegemony. As a practical implication, this depiction could give the AI-related industry players a hint to determine what to catch up on.
Despite being the three main world views shaping global citizenship education (GCE) methods, the neoliberal, humanistic and critical world views all have important drawbacks. This paper attempts to address those drawbacks by constructing the evolutionary world view from established knowledge in biology, psychology, as well as findings from the social sciences. The evolutionary world view explains the conditions of risks our global society is facing. It also demonstrates how evolutionary mechanisms of human cooperation underpin the concept of citizenship/citizenship education. Such world view enables the reconceptualisation of GCE as the study of global scale human cooperation in response to global risks and calls for further investigation into alternative methods for citizenship education.
This paper decomposes the variation in the business-sector R&D intensity, specifically the fraction financed through private resources, into changes in the firm characteristics, firm-specific R&D investment policies, external financing of R&D, and firm-specific policies related to supplementing/replacing the latter with private resources. First, we estimate the relationship between R&D intensity and external financing using micro-econometric models and controlling for selection bias (Vella, 1993). Then, we apply a 'three-fold' decomposition which improves the Blinder-Oaxaca procedure (Jann, 2008). We find that business-sector R&D intensity is more affected by firm-specific investment policies than by firm characteristics. Also, external financing and firm-specific policies related to supplementing/replacing external financing have major effects on R&D intensity. Although several effects are individually significant, overall (except for the period 2008-2013), the estimated value of the business-sector private R&D intensity has no significant variations since the individual effects balance each other out.
In long-term planning, scenario planning is often used to cope with uncertainty. Yet, theory and practice lack clear guidance leading to a diverse set of methodologies for scenario planning. Despite this shortcoming, scenario planning methodologies are frequently applied globally in a standardised manner without considering contextual differences. In particular, it is actors of multinational corporations who have to deal with contextual differences of various dimensions. By using the upper echelons theory, the underlying research shows from a theoretical standpoint how contextual differences influence the scenario planning processes. This research presents a scenario planning process with five process phases. By introducing a measurement scale for individual preferences in the process, adjustments can be made according to participants' preferences. The scale was validated with a large, global set of management consultants. Beyond practical value, the scale development helps to strengthen the position of scenario planning in the strategic management domain.
The accuracy of seven growth curves, namely: linear regression, logistic regression, exponential, Bass, Logistic Pearl, Gompertz and Harvey, are tested. Ten products are selected with five product categories: 1) electronic devices (i.e., Global Apple iPhones, Global Apple tablets, Global Samsung smart phones, Global Samsung tablets); 2) social media applications (i.e., Facebook users, WhatsApp users, Twitter users); 3) streaming applications (i.e., Netflix users); 4) bitcoin users; 5) industrial robots. The curves are compared using analysis of variance. A panel of experts is used to critique the forecasting results and provide opportunities for improvement. Comparisons between the five product categories and the expert panel involvement provided interesting opportunities for further research. None of the curves appeared to be dominant.
